318 DR. C. J. FORSYTH MAJOR ON FOSSIL GIRAFFID^. [May 5, 



The principal difference from the skull of the living Giraffe, besides 

 the absence of horns in a certain number of perfectly adult and even 

 partially aged specimens, consists in the position occupied by the 

 horns present in some other crania, these being placed, as already 

 stated, on the very roof of the orbits, whilst in the living animal we 

 see them, as is well known, far more backwards, viz. partly on the 

 parietal and partly on the frontal bones. 



First, as to the hornless skulls. Take away the protuberances and 



Fig. 1. 



Samotherinw, hoissicri. 

 Side view of skull and mandible of male, one-sixth nat. size. 



Isle of Samos. 



horns in a young skull of the Giraffe, and its affinity with the horn- 

 less skulls of Samotherium cannot be denied. In these last, as well 

 as in the horned specimens, the superior profile stretches nearly hori- 

 zontally from the upper part of the occiput towards the snout. The 

 roof of the orbits being made somewhat tumid by pneumatic cavities, 

 even in the hornless specimens, the region between them, occupied 

 in the Giraffe by the so-called unpaired horn, appears hollowed. 

 Another analogy of the superior profile, as well as of the up[)er con- 

 tour of the skull of Samotherium, is with the skull of the female 

 Elk, which last genus has been brought by Riitimeyer into close 

 relation with the Giraffe'. 



' L. Riitimeyer, ' Eeitriige zu eincr naturliulicn Gescliichlc dcr Ilii'sclic," i. 

 pp, 58-72. 



